OMB No. 1024-0018 EXP. 10-31-84 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service ationall egister of Historic ventory-nomination Form See instructions in How to Complete National Register Forms Type all entries-complete applicable sections For NPS use only received date entered and or common street & number First Street and Wal nut Street not for publication city. town Parsons vicinity of -- -- state West Virginia code 54 county Tucker code 093 3, Classif ieation Category Ownership Status Present Use district -X- public occupied -- agriculture -- museum 1L building(s) - private unoccupied -- commercial park - structure -- both work in progress - educational - private residence - site Public Acquisition Accessible -- entertainment religious object -- in process yes: restricted government - scientific MIA being considered 2.. yes: unrestricted industrial - transportation no --- rnilitarv other: 4, Owner of name -- Tucker County Commission -- - -- -- street & number Tucker County Courthouse - --- citv, town Parsons vicinitv of state West Virqinia 26287 courthouse, registry of deeds, etc. street & number Tucker County Courthouse -- --- - -- -- -- First Street and Walnut Street city, town Parsons state West Virginia 26287 title -- N/A has this property been determined eligible? _--yes no -- - - - - ---- - date -- federal state -- county. _ looai. --- -... -.. -.. -
Condition Check one Check one excellent -- deteriorated X - unaltered - -. original site 2- good ruins _ '- altered moved date NiA - -.---. -. -- fair unexposed Describe the present and original (if known) physical appearance The Tucker County Courthouse at Parsons stands on city lots 7 and 8 at the corner of First Street (U.S. Routes 219 and 72) and Walnut Street, in the center of a small community in rural and mountainous northeastern West Virginia. Adjacent to, and west of, the courthouse is the "jail and jailors residence." Built of red brick with stone appoinwlents, this 2-story structure is a significant dependency of the courthouse. It was customary in many West Virginia counties at the turn-of-the-century for jailors and/or sheriffs to reside in an official residence, often adjacent to or part of, the neighboring county courthouse. The Tucker County buildings (courthouse and sheriff's residence/jail ) are particularly fine, we1 1 -preserved examples of this associative tradition. The Tucker County Courthouse (1898-1900) is a massive red, pressed brick structure combining dominant styl e elements of the Fl mi sh Renaissance and Romanesque ~evival s. Flanki ng the massive entrance portal of rock-faced stone are two towers. The principal tower, 4 stories in height, is capped with a steeply pitched 4-sided roof pierced with Gothic-style wall dormers containing clock faces. The subsidiary tower to the right of the entrance portal is 2 and 4 stories high and exhi bits well defined brick eaves corbeling beneath a conical roof adorned with small hipped dormer vents. The whole of the well preserved building is appointed with contrasting stone voussoirs, label moldings, be1 t courses, and pressed or cast metal coping. The vertical massing of the structure and its Romantic styl ing recall ing the medieval thenes favored by Victorian builders lends the Tucker County Courthouse significance as an area example of Victorian eclecticism. Unusual in Nest Virginia is the architect's use of curvilinear gables (those facing First Street and Walnut Street). Such elements are Baroque in spirit and recall Amercian fascination with European historical styles; e.g., the Spanish Colonial and Flemish Renaissance revivals. The "jail -- and jailor's residence" (1896), several years older than the courthouse, is a large red brick, 2-story modified rectangle with hipped roof and rear ell. Its principal architectural features are its stone appointed entrance porch, stone cornice running the width of the front elevation at the first story level, and a hipped wall dormer with an enriched cornice, The residence/jail, like the courthouse, is eclectic in 2esign with Renaissance and Romanesque features present in window openings, roof massing and carved decoration. Corbeled chimneys that rise high above the roof are additional Victorian - era elements of interest that are currently (1984) well preserved.
. Significance Period Areas of Significance--Check and justify below prehistoric._ archeology-prehistoric community planning.. landscape architecture religion 1400-1499 archeology-historic..- conservation _. - law science. 1500-1599 _.. - agriculture --- economics literature - -- sculpture 1600-1699 2- architecture education. -- military -- _ social!._ 1700-1799 art... engineering --- music humanitarian.l 1800-1899 commerce exploration settlement philosophy. theater 4-1900- - communications _.. industry x-.- politics government transportation invention x. other specif ).- --- - ----.--.-. -.- - --. ----.- - -- -.-..--- Specific dates 18g_8-1-g00 _ BuilderArchitect -- ~ocal hi s!ory Courthouse: - -- -.- Frank P. Milburn, architect Statement of Significance (in one paragraph) P.O. Shrake, builder gr,\ Jai 1 : Franzeim, Giesey & Few~ts,Arch. William D. Bumgarner, builder The Tucker County Courthouse at Parsons, West Virginia, is significant because it is a well-preserved example of late 19th-century public architecture in West Virginia. The building and its period dependency, the jail and jailor's/ sheriff residence, were constructed within several yeras of one another; they survive from a time when many counties in West Virginia built separate or detached residznces for jailors and/or sheriffs that also contained the county jail. Both the courthouse and residence/jail were designed by architectural firms that were prominent in West Virginia at the time. Relating to the history of the Tucker County courthouse is the significant story of the rivalry between the county towns of St. George and Parsons and how the county court came to reside for all time at Parsons. The courthouse at Parsons is an especially commanding structure in a small -town setting. The buildi ng 's high degree of architectural and structural integrity reveal much about ideas of late 19th century design and construction. Exterior pressed brick, stone banding, and appointments of stone rustication en1 iven the elevations facing First Street and Nalnnt Street. The edifice's striking sense of verticality is an effect created by high-pitched roofs, both conical and pyramidal, by tall window openi ngs (fl at-headed and arched), and by ornaments of cast and pressed metals serving as finials, coping and solid baf us trades. Few courthouses in West Virginia feature better preserved design features of high-style Victorian-era publ ic architecture. The Tucker County Courthouse was designed by architect Frank Pierce Milburn (1868-1926), an architect of considerable importance who practiced in the southeastern United States and in Washington, D.C., during the late 19th and ear'l'y 20th century. Two of his West Virginia courthouses are found in McDowell County and Berkeley County. The jail and "jailor's residence" are combined in a single structure that remains significant for its relationship to the courthouse; it is also a well preserved example of publ ic residential architecture (1896) of the late 19th century designed by the prominent Nheeling, West Virginia, firm of Franzheim, Giesy and Ferris. The architects of this partnership were a11 talented, but Mr. Franzheim achieved particular prominence in b!est Virginia. In addition to the jail at Parsons, a substantial yet modest brick structure of late 19th-century eclecticism, Franzheim contributed to other outstanding bi~ildings including the Fayette County Courthouse and the Vance Memorial Chapel in Wheeling.
NPS Form 10-9o0.a @-82) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register sf Historic Inventory-Nomination Form OM8 No. $024-0018 Exp. 10-31-84 Tucker County Courthouse, Parsons, Tucker County, West Virgi Continuation sheet item number 8 Paae 7 The county seat at Parsons, Tucker County, was not always the established location of the county court. Its legitimacy as county seat was actually secured in a bizarre incident often referred to in local history as the "County Seat War." While intracounty rivalries are not rare in American history, the competitive interests of the county communities of St. George, which was selected as the county seat in 1856 when Tucker County was formed from part of the vast territory of Randolph County, and Parsons, a growing lumber town to the south, are worthy of note. The competitive "calm" in the county irrupted in 1893 with the "fly-by-night" seizure of the county records and the forced removal of the court by a gang of Parsons residents who simply rode into town and rode out with everything of official import. In the words of Vernon Shahan, a citizen of St. George, (as reported in the Parsons Advocate and later summarized by Ferrell Friend in the Charleston Gazette): "During the night of August 1, 1893, a group of prominent citizens and hoodlums from our neighboring town of Parsons zoomed into our thriving community with road wagons and on foot and literally stole our establ ished county seat and moved it to Parsons." The town of St. George. settled in 1776 (and the oldest community in the county), never regained its former prominence. With the construction of the magnificent brick courthouse at Parsons in the years 1898-1900, the flickering hope that the county seat might once again come to St. George was lost forever.
County -- Order Books; 4, pp. 243, 391, 409-10, 414, 503; 5, pp. 3-5. "riend, Ferrell. "The County Seat War." Charleston Gazette-Mail. Sept. 25, 1977.,organ, Maxine. "Historic Properties Inventory Form." Oct. 10, 1983 (Historic Preservation Unit) 3 0. Geographical Data Acreage of nominated property Quadrangle name Parsons 3 UT M References MV 314 acre 1-24 000 Quadrangle scale --L:, Zone Easting Northing Verbal boundary description and justification Inclusive of City lots 4,5,6,7 & 8. Bounded to the N. by First Street, to the E. by Walnut Street, to the S. by Second Street, and to the W. by an alley (188 ft. x 120 ft.) -- -.. - - List all states and counties for properties overlapping state or county boundaries state code county code ttate code county code name title Rodney S. Coll ins, Architectural Historian.- ---- --- Historic Preservation Unit oraanization Department of Culture and History date April 4, 1984 -. -- - - - -- - - - - city or town Char1 eston state West Virginia 25305 The evaluated significance of this property within the state is: - national X -_ state local -- - -- As the designated State Historic Preservation Officer for the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966 (Public Law 8% 665), 1 hereby nominate this property for inclusion in the that it has been evaluated according to the criteria and procedures set forth by the Nation,- w-7 State Historic Preservation Officer signature title State Historic Preservation Officer / - - -- For NPS use only I hereby certify that this property is included in the National Register,---- bate June 29, 1934 Keepr of the National Register Attest: Chief of Registration date date